The Hindu Business Line : Speak French? You can quote your price

MARIA (name changed) is bemused at the attention a Bangalore-based IT major is showering on her. For the last four months, the company has repeatedly tried roping her in as an employee and she has refused. She is in her second year of MA (French) at the University of Madras.

In the IT industry, demand always exceeds supply of qualified people. But in this case, it's not necessarily her technical skills that the IT major wants - but her felicity with the French language.

Interestingly, India does too few outsourcing projects catering to French-speaking customers in IT and IT-enabled services.

Prof B. Balakumar, Head of Department, French Language Studies, at the University of Madras, says, "It's not unusual for masters' degree holders in the French language to refuse such opportunities as Maria did."

He feels that with a majority of such qualified people being women, "they prefer an occupation they could pursue from home." Document translation is one such. Says Prof Balakumar, "With an MA in French, it is very easy to get a job in a school at a starting salary of Rs 8,000 per month." Opportunities for tuitions and translation services add to the individual's earnings.

Mr N. Muralidharan, Managing Director and Vice-President, JobStreet.com India, says, "There is a dearth of foreign language specialists. Due to the high cost of such specialists, it may not be attractive for outsourcing projects at this stage."

He says that in smaller team sizes some call centre and business process outsourcing (BPO) companies are servicing existing customers. Also, some companies have centres in locations such as Mexico or the Philippines for Spanish, the Czech Republic and Mauritius for French and the like.

"They have an advantage of capability in delivery and perhaps lower cost than in the parent country."

Mr Balaji E., General Manager, Ma Foi Consultants, a recruitment firm, agrees that a call centre job is too rigid for most French-knowing candidates accustomed to freelancing. "The good ones already have some four or five sources of income."

Commenting on actual level of outsourcing from France, he says, "France has not been doing too well economically and has a relatively high unemployment rate. There isn't much outsourcing happening now."

He also reasons that Europe is typically an employee-driven market unlike the US. "A European country would face greater resistance in outsourcing jobs."

But there certainly are a few small projects going on in India, which employs candidates with fluency in German, Spanish and French.

Explains Mr Balaji, "These are typically pilot projects employing about 50 or 100 people at a time." Interestingly, anticipating a pick-up in demand for French language skills, Ma Foi has set up base in Pondicherry.